St. Francis de Sales at 1 Maria Drive, Loudonville, NY 12211 US - Who was St. Francis de Sales?

Saint Francis de Sales 1567 - 1622 Feast Day - January 24 St. Francis de Sales was a bishop in exile from his city due to the Protestant Reformation. He was a misunderstood teenager who wanted to become a priest, but whose ambitious father insisted he study law. He is the patron of Catholic press, Catholic journalists and Catholic authors, although he never handled a printing press or kept a reporter's deadline. Single-minded yet charitable, Saint Francis de Sales was the quintessential Renaissance gentleman who somehow transcends his times to be a model for us today. His feast is January 24. The 1992 Winter Olympics centered in Albertville, France. Most of Saint Francis de Sales' pastoral work occurred within 100 miles of Albertville in the Alpine area that now straddles the French-Swiss border. Born August 21, 1567, at the family castle at Thorens, Francis Bonaventure de Sales was baptized the day after his birth and given the names of two great Franciscan saints. Thorens was then controlled by the duke of Savoy. Francis' father belonged to the nobility. Eldest of 13 children, Francis was educated at the Universities of Paris and Padua. His father served as a senator from Savoy, and had hoped for his son to follow in his footsteps. But Francis knew very early that he had a religious vocation. For more than a year after law school, Francis tried to convince his father, but it was his cousin, Louis de Sales, who figured out how to get around Francis' father. Louis secured the prestigious position of provost of the chapter of Geneva for Francis, so Francis' father was appeased. Francis was ordained a priest in 1593. Religious tensions between Protestants and Catholics were at fever pitch throughout that century, with wars and massacres on both sides. Reformer John Calvin had settled in Geneva, preaching a theology that included predestination, the total depravity of human beings and limited forgiveness for sins. By 1536, Calvin actually ran the city, declaring new laws against dancing, banquets and expensive clothes. The city became "the Rome of the Protestants." Today an enormous monument built into one of the Geneva's ramparts in 1917 celebrates Reformers like Calvin with the words "Post Tenebras Lux" ("After the darkness, light"). Economic factors, as well as religious principles, were at stake. In the 16th century, the Catholic dukes of Savoy, for instance, tried to manipulate Geneva's trade for their own benefit. Under Calvin, the city prospered. The year after Francis was ordained, the Duke of Savoy consolidated his power in the Chablais district. Francis volunteered at once to bring the Calvinists back to Catholicism. His father was appalled. "I allowed my son to devote himself to the service of the church, but I cannot give him up to be a martyr." The new "Apostle to the Chablais" was twice set upon by assassins, insulted and beaten by hostile crowds. Two or three generations had passed without some Calvinists hearing a positive word about Catholicism. They feared reprisals if they even talked to a priest on the road. Francis believed, "Love will shake the walls of Geneva....Ardent prayer must break down the walls of Geneva and brotherly love charge them....Everything gives way to love. Love is as strong as death, and to those who love, nothing is hard." Francis never broke down the walls of Geneva, but he did affect the Chablais. When he began, the story goes, the Chablais had 72,000 Calvinists and 27 Catholics. Four years later, those figures were reversed: 27 Calvinists and 72,000 Catholics. How did Francis accomplish this? First, he recognized that it was the people's right to choose their expression of faith. Francis pleaded with the Duke of Savoy not to impose exile on those who did not convert to Catholicism. Then he discovered the power of the printed word. He turned his sermons and instructions into tracts small enough to be slipped under doors that would not open to him. At first his friends copied these by hand, but soon he was having the tracts printed to be passed out or posted. Printing was still a new medium then, only 100 years-plus after Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. Francis' pamphlets are a systematic defense of Catholic teaching at its best. The writing is logical, passionate and occasionally humorous. In a 1967 letter on the 400 anniversary of the saint's birth, Pope Paul VI noted that, by the standards of his day, even in argument Francis was gentle: "He is never violent in dispute, he loves those in error while he corrects the error." On December 8, 1602, Francis was consecrated bishop of the See of Geneva. He was only 35. Three days later, an event occurred which guaranteed that Francis would never be acknowledged as bishop inside the city of Geneva. On December 11-12, 1602, the Duke of Savoy made a surprise night attack on Geneva because he was unable to resign himself to its loss. The attackers' attempt to scale the city walls with ladders failed. A housewife spotted the Duke's men, poured hot soup over their heads and sounded the alarm. The failure to retake the city is still celebrated in Geneva with special candies and dancing in the "Festival of the Escalade." As bishop, Francis put a high priority on education. He organized the teaching of catechism throughout the diocese every Sunday and holy day. To teach Christian faith, a confraternity composed exclusively for lay people was established (CCD). Francis collaborated with a widow, Jane Frances de Chantal, in establishing the cloistered Order of Visitation for women, a liberating option for those times. Francis died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the Visitation monastery in Lyons on December 28, 1622, at age 55. Francis' spiritual advice, particularly his comments on prayer, inspired many in his lifetime and has stood the test of time. His letters to a relative he counseled, Marie de Scharmoisy, became the basis for Introduction to the Devout LifeThe book first appeared in 1608 and was immediately recognized as a masterpiece of mystical and devotional literature, one of the first works addressed to lay people to assure them that they too are called to be saints. Wherever we may be, Francis says, "we can and should aspire to a perfect life." He called it "an error, or rather a heresy, to wish to banish the devout life from the regiment of soldiers, the mechanic's shop, the court of princes, or the home of married people....There have even been many cases of people who lost perfection in solitude...and have kept it in the midst of crowds." The church declared Francis de Sales a saint in 1665. Perhaps his gentle spirit and compassionate approach toward others can inspire today all of us who are called to live and spread the Good News in our times. The Saint With Empathy It's not uncommon for us lay folk to feel a bit alienated when reading the lives of the saints because their circumstances and their advice to us can seem so unrelated to our own situation. But one striking exception is Saint Francis de Sales, the Savoyard nobleman of today's Eastern France. Not that he was a layman; far from it! Early on, he determined to be a priest; he was ordained young; his capabilities quickly made him a bishop, and he spent his life thoroughly preoccupied with pastoral activities, as summarized below. The point is, he had an unusual knack for relating to the lay person; and, indeed, to seeing that person's true worth and spiritual potential. Maybe this empathy stemmed from his background and the rather harmonious pattern of his early life. Born of exemplary Catholics of the local nobility, he received a thorough humanistic education while nevertheless adhering to a solid program of personal piety. Except for a severe but relatively brief period of confusion when he was eighteen, his spiritual progress appears to have been steady. His father preferred a secular career for him, but did not seriously oppose Francis' choice of the priesthood. The saint was well schooled in the niceties of gracious living and never condemned or rejected them out of hand, even though the exigencies of his own career so often led otherwise. They certainly did so during the dramatic early years of his priesthood. Francis had been born only shortly after the Protestant Reformation, and the Chablais region of Savoy had fallen under Calvinist influence and control. He volunteered to penetrate the area as a roving missionary, a task linked with not only discomfort but outright physical danger. He spent four years in this work, often sleeping in the open. During this period, three of Francis' gifts, writing and preaching and kind persuasiveness, began emerging in earnest. He found it very effective to write and distribute weekly short articles throughout the populace, explaining particular Catholic doctrines and criticizing the opposing Calvinist ones. He scored well whenever he could engage a Calvinist minister in public debate and his personal holiness and engaging manner wielded power of their own. His success in Chablais led him to become, with reluctance, a bishop. The local ordinary, heading the Diocese of Geneva, died around this time and Francis was named to the post. In practice, his headquarters were instead in nearby Annecy, as Geneva was a Calvinist stronghold. He spent the rest of his life in Annecy, notable for his modesty of life, careful formation of his priests and zealous attention to his laity. Nevertheless, he did not fear to walk through Geneva, even dressed in his bishop's robes, when appropriate occasions arose. Francis delivered more than 4,000 sermons and was described as a preacher of power and charm. He was likewise effective in the spiritual direction of individuals. It is this activity that led to two of his accomplishments that have had perhaps the most dramatic, long term effect. First, his direction of the young widow, Jane Frances de Chantal, led the two of them to found a new religious group for women, with de Chantal as first superioress. This soon led to a growing organization, the nuns of the Visitation of Holy Mary. Meanwhile, the friendship between Francis and Jane grew deep and abiding, and the saint's biographers note that its spiritual benefits must surely have flowed in both directions. The second instance involved a relative of Francis, Madame de Charmoisy, whom the saint was spiritually guiding via correspondence. Francis' letters to her came to the attention of a priest, whose enthusiasm for them led the saint, again reluctantly, to have them published. The result was the book, Introduction to the Devout Life, that continues as a spiritual classic to the present day. As one commentator puts it, this practical and easy-to-read book "sets forth a spirituality compatible with life in the world, and stands in contrast to the works of those contemporary authors who regarded perfection as attainable only by withdrawal from the world." However, Francis did not ignore those who did withdraw: he also wrote his Treatise on the Love of God, for people relatively advanced in perfection. Both books, like his letters and sermons, bear a clear and graceful style. Indeed, Francis' reputation for good writing has made him the patron saint of journalists. (This author knows at least one journalist who uses the saint's initials as the log-on password for his word processor.) In addition to the nuns of the Visitation, Francis is the patron for numerous other religious congregations. These include the Missionaries of Saint Francis de Sales, the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales, Salesians of Don Bosco, and the Sisters of Saint Joseph. - Nick Chopey

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